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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2345645" data-attributes="member: 3146">I would expect that a number of the points Forceuser mentioned could be reasoned to by most intelligent individuals.For instance, let's say you're a winter wolf pack leader. You discover that someone killed the wolf you sent to collect your sacrifice and is taking the sacrifice away. Do you:A. Immediately take all of your wolves and purse the killers leaving your den unguarded and the entrances to your territory unwatched.B. Send out scouts to follow the trail of the sacrifice and his rescuersC. Mount a punitive expedition on the village to teach them the error of their ways for killing your sacrifice collector.D. Do nothing and just let the cold ones attack the village next week.Myself, I would guess that option B is the most likely and option A is probably tied with D for least likely.Or, for his first point. You're in a strange land speaking with a group of self-interested individuals. Do you:A. Assume that their knowledge is perfect and that they are being absolutely honest with you.B. Assume that their knowledge is imperfect but that they are being absolutely honest with you.C. Assume that their knowledge is imperfect and while they are probably mostly being honest with you, they slant whatever information they give you in order to shape your perceptions to their advantage.D. Assume that not only is their knowledge imperfect, but they are generally trying to manipulate you with disinformation.E. Assume that their knowledge is perfect but they're being dishonest.While options D and E might be viable in the abyss and A and B might be viable in Celestia, I would say that C is probably the most realistic conclusion about 99% of NPCs encountered on any earthlike environment.And, to defend a few more of his points: illusion spells and using terrain to your advantage are up to the cleverness of the players. In general, I would assume that my characters no only can but will use any available terrain to their best advantage and that illusions can be useful though they have their limitations (in this case, non-olfactory illusions are only effective outside of 15-60 feet depending upon the wind). The "no-win situation" is another. A situation is only no-win if you can't figure out a solution that gives you a shot at winning. If you can, you don't assume it's no-win. In this case, I would think that there are a fair number of possible outcomes, some of which are good. And, really, that's the best a player can ask for in a lot of situations.</blockquote>

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